Fascinating
by Midoriri
Summary: Tell me, does Mello find me fascinating?"..."I think you're weird. Kinda freaky." Genderswitch, slight MelloxGirl!Near


**Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note, Rapunzel, Klingons, or "Scarborough Fair." However, I _do_ own this Girl!Near here...**

She looked inhuman, sitting there. Sitting there, clad all in white, long white hair like she was some sort of a fairy, or an albino Rapunzel. Although he couldn't imagine _any_ sort of handsome prince coming to free this girl from a tower.

_No, _Mello thought with a smirk. _She'd probably just ignore any princes and continue to play with her toys. And the prince would get insulted and leave. _He could just see it: Near sitting in some ivory tower, wearing a white nightdress, her puzzle at her feet. And the prince would show up, and she'd just sit there, putting her blank puzzle together. She might address him, yes, but it'd be something along the lines of "If you're not going to say or do anything worthwhile, kindly leave me alone."

_Oh, that would be just _rich...

She didn't acknowledge him at all. Sometimes he wondered if she even knew he was there. But she'd always be sitting there, and he'd watch her until he grew bored and left. He didn't know why so many people found her so fascinating. She was a freak...

And now she was finished, lifting the puzzle above her head to dump the pieces on the ground, her head tilted upwards. Her long white hair fell down her back and over her shoulders, her pale mouth shut tight as she hummed some old song. Well, maybe old in Mello's book.

"What is so fascinating about that puzzle?" Mello said, trying to sound indifferent.

Near turned her head, staring with those wide, black eyes. She didn't say anything, simply shrugged at him and returned her attention to her toy. Mello wondered if she could be autistic...

"What is so fascinating about chocolate?" Near asked, her voice quiet, so quiet he almost didn't hear her. She always spoke in such a soft voice, as though she were afraid to be heard. (But no way was that true. She liked to have people listen to her. Listen to what she had to say.)

Well, a soft voice was better than none...

_"Mello, would you mind helping this one adjust, please?" a teacher asked, his hand on the pale girl's shoulder._

_He stared at her, noting how she kept her head down, her fair hair shielding her eyes. "Why can't she help herself?" he had asked._

_"Please, just show her around and introduce her to the other kids?"_

_"Why don't _you_ do it?"_

_"Mello..."_

_The girl suddenly shuffled backwards, as though she was trying to make a getaway. But the teacher tightened his grip on her shoulder. "Young lady," he scolded. As soon as he spoke, the girl seemed to stiffen, and she bolted forward, hiding behind the blonde boy, just barely her senior. _

_"H-Hey!" he cried out, looking over his shoulder at her._

_Her hands gripped his black shirt tightly, and she lowered her body slightly as though she wanted to shrink away to nothingness. _

_"Let go!"_

_She looked up then, her black eyes looking dead. For a brief moment, he could see some emotion in them...fear. And then she let go._

He shrugged. "It's good."

"My puzzle is 'good' (as you so eloquently put it) as well," she answered monotonously, placing the first place in the direct center of the board. "And challenging. Like you."

He ignored the possible insult. "You play with that same damn puzzle everyday," he growled. He noticed that she didn't respond to the swear. "It can't possibly still be challenging."

"Perhaps," she said in answer, and then she was quiet.

They sat/stood there a few minutes longer before Near spoke again. "I remember when I first got this. Do you remember?"

Mello snorted. "Yeah, that was when I first heard you talk."

_"Near, for the third time, let _go!" _Mello grunted, trying to shake the girl off of him. She'd been here for about three weeks, and during all this time, she hadn't uttered a word. She wasn't deaf; that was certain, since she obviously responded to sound. Nor was she stupid, one look at her grades would show that. (Besides, if she was stupid, would she even _be_ here?) The teachers decided that maybe she'd just been traumatized. Mello thought she was just being a snob._

_But for reasons unfathomable to him, she'd taken to him like a puppy to a ball. Every morning when he awoke, he'd open the door to find the nightgown-clad girl standing just outside the door, staring wide-eyed at him. She followed him to meals, she followed him between classes (and_ in_ classes, she'd stood next to him until the teacher set a desk in that spot, thinking that maybe she needed to be indulged in this. Perhaps after awhile, she'd get bored of this "game" and leave him be. No luck) and well, everywhere else. It had almost been funny when he tried to push her out of the bathroom so he could actually use it. Almost._

_She didn't let go this time. She only tightened her grip and moved closer, as if saying "No, and I never_ will_ let go, so you can go piss off."_

_"I see your Klingon's with you," Matt said half-jokingly as he joined him the hallway. "Hey there," he said, waving a little at Near. She widened her eyes and lowered them, hiding again. "Shy thing, isn't she?"_

_"Near!" came a new voice. "Near, over here!" _

_The trio stopped, Matt and Mello because they would have to stop in order for her to. The pale (in every way) girl lifted her head to stare at the old man in one of the doorways. He was smiling gently and holding something behind his back._

_"Near," he said gently. "I've got a present for you."_

_She stared._

_A white puzzle was brought out, held up proudly for her to see. "It looks like fun, don't you agree?" he said hopefully. "You'll like it, I promise." _

_Near stared up at it, her eyes wider than ever, her mouth slightly open. Then a miracle occurred... She let go of Mello's shirt and actually stepped away from him. She stood there and reached up for the puzzle, her little hands opening and closing in the way that little kids can say "Gimme" without getting in trouble._

_Within moments it was in her hands, and in another moment, the three witnessed the second "miracle."_

_"Thank...you..."_

"Funny," said Near, a little coldly. "I would think that you wouldn't have cared."

"Hey," Mello protested, his eyes narrowing at the back of her head. "You were holding onto me like a parasite, I had to care _a little..._eventually." _Not that he _liked_ her, but..._

"If memory serves," she interrupted his thoughts, smiling slightly, even though he couldn't see it. "You were always anxious to get away from me. Remember when you locked me in one of the bathrooms so you could play with Matt in peace?"

"You were okay," Mello grumbled, slightly embarrassed at the memory. The teachers had noticed she was missing after about an hour, and they'd found her in one of the second-floor bathrooms, curled into the fetal position with her hands over her mouth, eyes wide. "Well, for the most part."

He returned his gaze to her; the albino princess, the ice fairy, the freaky girl genius. She's always in that damned nightgown; button-up, thin lace at the bottom, long, wide sleeves...and the whole thing too big for her. He began to wonder if she even had any real clothes. Or maybe she had nothing but pajamas in her closet...

Mello chuckled slightly as he remembered what she _used_ to wear. In the summer, when she was smaller, she'd worn over-sized tee-shirts, with nothing else. It was pretty funny sometimes, seeing her bend down to play with her puzzle, with her little white panties showing, one of the teachers being all flustered as he or she tried to get her to put shorts on. Of course, Near hadn't cared.

"Tell me, Mello," she said suddenly, fixing the final piece into her puzzle. (How had she gotten it done so quickly?) "Do you find me fascinating?"

What the-? Was that an attempt at flirting? "You're pretty weird," he only said, taking another bite of chocolate. "Kinda freaky."

"So Mello finds me freaky and weird," Near mused to herself, tilting herself backwards, her hair flowing down to the floor. (_I'm right, _Mello thought absently. _She _is _a damned Rapunzel...) _"That's almost insulting, because I find him fascinating."

"Are you trying to flirt with me?" he growled. "Because it's not going to work."

"Mello seems to be infatuated with me already," she said simply.

_"What?!"_

"I know he stares at me..." she grinned.

_Why is she talking about me like I'm not here, like I'm someone else? _"Near, the only thing that fascinates me about you..." he began solemnly, before his mouth twisted into a wry smile. "Is how in the hell you can have hair that long, and not get it tangled."

"De-tangler," she said simply, as if it were obvious. "Spray it on every day and comb through."

Mello scoffed at her and walked off. She was such a little freak.

_Yet at the same time, she's a princess. Or an ice-child. One or the other..._

_**Four Years Later**_

"Do you know _why_ I didn't speak?" she asked him, as the gun was leveled at her head. Instead of waiting for an answer, she smiled slightly and went on. "It's because I was scared. Men scared me so much...And I clung to you because I thought, at first, that you were a girl."

Mello's finger twitched.

"But then when I found out your true gender, I stayed because it suited me," she went on. Her head tilted back now, so that her skull was pressed against the muzzle of the loaded gun. "I think I even found you fascinating...Mello, if you wish to shoot me, go ahead." She smiled at him.

His fingers twitched again, and finally, he withdrew the black pistol. "Forget it," he snarled. "Just give me back my photo."

"Here." It passed from one pair of hands to another. His eyebrows lowered as he saw the girl's handwriting on the back. _"Dear Mello...?" The fuck?_

He left soon after. And as he walked down the hallways, alone now, he could hear it. Someone was following him. And he had a pretty good idea of who. "What, Near?" he growled, stopping.

The girl, the princess, the ice-queen drew forward and he felt her pressing against his back, her hands gripping the fabric. "I still find you..." she whispered. "...so fascinating..."

He didn't say anything to that. "Near. You're a freak of nature, you know that?"

She smiled. "Yes."

"I hate you."

"I know."

Silence.

"Would you please help me, though?" she finally murmured against his back.

"I don't know." He pulled away, walked away from her. His back felt strangely cold now. "Your hair's gotten longer," he said awkwardly.

Behind him, Near's smile faded a little. "M-hm...I'll see you later, then?" she called.

"I don't know..."

Near stood there, staring, long after he'd gone. Then she turned around to go back. She need to to get back to work, she'd left her team alone, and Heaven knew she had all sorts of toys to play with. She grinned eerily as she entered the room, humming a tune under her breath, ignoring the stares of her team as she reached the end.

_"He once was a true love of mine..." _she sang out quietly, sitting back down on the floor in the middle of her train station.

**Wow. I stayed up past my bedtime cranking this out. My fingers and back hurt. So, did you like it?**

**Explanations:**

**Klingon: Actually, this joke needs no explaining. I hope. In case it does, just say the word out loud. Klingon. Kling-on. Cling-on. Aka, a leech or monkey.**

**Rapunzel Hair: I've written DN genderswitch before, and my Girl!L always has Sadako-hair. I figured that since Near looks a _lot_ like L, then Girl!Near would have freakishly long hair as well. But Sadako-hair didn't seem to suit "her" so I gave her "Rapunzel Hair." It's also a bit more neater and taken care of.**


End file.
